It was about four years ago when I came across the film 'The Seven Samurai'. This movie made me realize what a good director can do, with simple stories. The man behind this film was Akira Kurosawa, a master film maker from Japan who inspired new age movies like Star Wars and also many Spaghetti Westerns. Akira Kurosawa's movies have a very simple language. Even if the movies are Japanese, the body language of the characters will make you understand what characters are saying without the help of subtitles.
Most of Akira Kurosawa's films have very simple plots and he always tries to reduce the dialogues as much as possible to make it universal. One of my favorite film is Ikiru, It's a story about an old man with stomach cancer who is waiting for his death. The movie is a story of realization of a man who has spent his entire life behind his office desk, waiting for his retirement. But, when the he was about to get his retirement he gets to know about his incurable stomach cancer. A scene in this film where the old man sits on the swing inside a park, he doesn't say a thing, but it is clear that he wants to become a child again, this is one of the most hard hitting moments in his filmography. It definitely will inspire people to take life easily. Simple plots with long lasting messages, this is the basic idea behind any Akira Kurosawa's films.
A notable thing in any Akira Kurosawa's film is the use of background. The background always has something moving in it to indicate the intensity of the scene. It could be rain, wind or simply people walking around. The background is used to represent what the characters are thinking.
Akira Kurosawa's films have a distinct framing technique. All the shots are framed to express the scene more effectively without the use of language. In 'Ran', the framing played a major role. The killing scene of the queen where the soldier chops her head off and blood sprayed on the wall, here the anger of the soldier is indicated with blood on the wall.
This is the end of part one of Akira Kurosawa's style, follow me for the second part. Cheers !
